Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-04-07
The new Canaan.

Twenty-Five years sgo he would have
been esteemad a bold or foolish man who
predicted that in 1887 California would
be the banner fruit country OF the world.
Yet such is the fact to-day, and now the
man would be bold or foolish who
would attempt to deny it. In recent
article upon the fruit lands Of the State,
the San Francisco Chronicle says: "In
the Vaca valley there are over 10000
acres of paying orchards; the
Sacramento pear growers nave
become rich on their products;
Yuba and Butte are as rich now in fruit
as they once we're in wheat; the fruit
growers OF the foothills have been unable
to supply the eastern demand for the
reaches from this section; the fruit lands
of Alameda are valued at from $3.50 to
5000 an acre, and cherry orchard over
there of IA acres yielded its owner $780,
OOO in one wear; Los Angeles contains
more than 20, 600 acres of orchards, sup.
porting nearly 100 different ranchers;
the southern counties shipped last year
over 10000 600 pounds OF lemons, or.
anoes and lines, and Sacramento and
San Jose sent away over lS,OOO, 0OO
rounds Of other green fruit. The
California apple grower receives as
much a box for his product during Ger.
tain seasons as the Eastern grower re.
ceives a barrel, and the Michigan and
Illinois fruit-dealers declare that they
sell double as many California oranges
as they do of those that grow in Florida
or elsewhere. As high as $500 an acre
has been realized from small.fruits in
dustries where before man made but
$50 from wheat in good years. As It'll is,
we send millions of pounds OF green
fruit every year to Chicago. Kansas
C;tv. a.. Paul, Minneapolis. st.
Louis and keep the Middle and Western
States supplied with these dslicasles
eod the time is not far distant when,
with more rapid means of transporter
t;on. we shall be able to put our peaches,
nears. nectarines and cherries on the far
Eastern market a week after they have
been picked from the California trees.
Tn carta;n cases this is done now; hut is
70 be done as naturally and commonly
as though New York and Boston were
lust across the borders.
Fruit will grow anywhere in Callfor-
MIA. 1t is not confined to the winterless
south by a any manner OF means. One
of the richest fruit districts is the Colfax
belt in Placer county, $500 feet above
the level of the sea; the olive orchards
of Auburn in the Sierra are wonder;
the oranges of Oroville ripen month
earlier than those of New Orleans; the
apples of Nevada county are unequalled;
the Muscats and Muscatels OF Yuba
rive nroft of from $75 to $l25 an
acre. and there were over S.. 200, 600
pounds of green fruit shipped from the
little town of Newcastle up in the
mountains last year. or.
In her fruit productions California
seems mystery to our brethren OF the
East. 1t is true, as was sald when
treating of climate, that Southern Call
fornia is semi.tropical, but 80 Is North
ern California, too. The temperature
in Tehama county seldom goes down to
freezing point, and flowers grow and
bloom in the open air all winter. And
Tehsma is a northern county In every
sense of the word. being 100 miles north
of Sacramento. Few understand these
peculiarities, and it is hard to understand
that country in the same latitude with
New York can raise oranges, lemons
and fig,. and have flowers blooming in
the wards the whole year round. Is it
any wonder that people who leave Cali
fornia have only one desire--and that ls
to get back to it? Stranger than this,
peaches, figs, grapes. nectarines and
other tender fruits may be seen growing
luxuriantly near the very summit OF the
Sierra Nevada mountains, 5000 feet up.
--[Pacitic Fruit Grower.